Swiss Market Ends Weak
(RTTNews) – The Switzerland stock market ended weak on Wednesday, even as other major markets in Europe closed on a firm note thanks to some positive earnings news and on optimism about U.S. lawmakers agreeing on a stimulus package. The benchmark SMI ended down 64.07 points or 0.63% at 10,097.97, almost near the day’s low. The market spent most part of the session till about mid afternoon in positive territory. Novartis slid 1.48%, Swisscom and Nestle both ended lower by about 1.25%, and Roche Holding declined 1.2%. Adecco moved up 1.7%. Swatch Group ended nearly 1% up, while UBS Group, Richemont, LafargeHolcim and Geberit gained 0.4 to 0.7%. In the midcap section, Sunrise Communications declined by about 1%. Vifor Pharma ended down 0.75% and Helvetia lost 0.4%. Dufry gained about 5.6%. AMS moved up 3.4% and Clariant gained nearly 2%. Straumann Holding, Temenos Group, Ems Chemie Holding, OC Oerlikon Corp, Bucher Industries and VAT Group ended higher by 1 to 1.7%. The other major markets in Europe closed notably higher. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.14%, France’s CAC 40 ended up 0.9% and Germany’s DAX gained 0.47%. The pan European Stoxx 600 advanced 0.49%. Finally, there is some optimism that
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The Guardian view on the Beirut blast: a tragedy within a crisis | Editorial
Beirut has come to know the sound of explosions too well in its recent past, but none looked or felt like the blast that laid waste central districts of the city on Tuesday. The devastation is on a scale more usually wrought by earthquakes. The port at the heart of the Lebanese capital was annihilated. Shock waves ripped the facades from every building in neighbouring districts – and behind every shattered window are shattered lives. There are not enough hospital beds or a reliable supply of electricity. Infrastructure for storing and importing many of the city’s essential goods has been destroyed, making scarcity of food an imminent threat. A vast crater at the site of the detonation scars the coastline, but deeper still are the wounds to a nation that was already reeling from economic crisis, debilitated by pandemic and weary from political chaos and corruption.The explosion appears to have been accidental, a conflagration of chemicals taken from an impounded ship and left in a warehouse for six years, but tragic accidents are not random acts of nature. They have causes that can be investigated, roots in the choices that people have made. Sadly, citizens of Beirut know better than
